re: yanks will like that tonight....

re: yanks will like that tonight. Absolutely.......Agreed..

Prana’s Alzheimer’s drug shows continued promise in
extended clinical trial
Melbourne, Australia – Friday April 16, 2004: Professor Colin Masters, a Director of
Prana Biotechnology Limited (NASDAQ: PRAN, ASX: PBT) and Chairman of the
Company's Scientific Advisory Board, today will present data from the extended Phase II
trial of Prana’s drug, PBT-1, at the 8th International Springfield/Montreal Symposium on
Advances in Alzheimer's Disease.
At a session devoted to novel treatments of Alzheimer’s disease, Professor Masters will
report that the use of PBT-1 for 18 months markedly slowed the decline in cognitive
function associated with Alzheimer's disease compared with the predicted level of
decline available from the scientific literature. In addition the longer term treatment was
well tolerated.
The extension study was conducted over 48 weeks following the formal trial period of the
trial of 36 weeks. Nine of the original 18 patients completed the extension.
Speaking from Montreal, Professor Masters stated that the outcome for patients in the
extension study provided confirmatory and new evidence that MPACs such as PBT-1
may form the next generation of agents for the treatment of Alzheimer’s by slowing or
stopping the disease rather than just dealing with the symptoms.
Dr Sam Gandy, Director of the Farber Institute for Neurosciences at Thomas Jefferson
University, Philadelphia, commented: “This PBT-1 (clioquinol) extension study reaffirms
the safety and possible efficacy of this new class of drug for Alzheimer's disease. It will
now be important to confirm the trend toward benefit in a larger trial with sufficient
numbers of subjects to establish statistical significance.
“Overall, anti-amyloid, “plaque-busting” drugs such as PBT-1 (clioquinol) provide a
powerful approach toward proof of principle regarding the relationship between amyloid
and cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease," said Dr Gandy.
The biannual Symposium on Advances in Alzheimer's Disease is organized by the
Southern Illinois University (SIU) School of Medicine in Springfield, Illinois, the
Department of Geriatrics at the Hopitaux Universitaires de Geneve, Switzerland, and the
McGill University Faculty of Medicine in Montreal, Quebec.
Recently (March 26) Prana announced that Forbes.com had added PBT-1 to its list of
“neurological drugs to watch”, highlighting the most promising experimental drugs to
treat diseases of the brain and nervous system.
Prana also recently announced (7 April) that a publication in the Journal of Neuroscience
added further support to Prana’s theory that metals in the brain, rather than proteins on
their own, are responsible for the pathology of Alzheimer’s Disease and that attenuating
the action of these metals, with drugs like PBT-1, may hold the key to effective
therapeutic intervention.
About PBT-1
PBT-1, also called clioquinol, is an example of a Metal Protein Attenuating Compound or MPAC.
It is a small molecule that binds metal ions. Due to its small size and solubility in lipid, PBT-1 is
able to enter the brain from the bloodstream and bind to zinc. This action can remove the zinc
already bound to amyloid beta and bind free zinc to prevent its association with amyloid beta
protein.
About Prana
Prana is a Melbourne-based biotechnology established in 1997 to commercialize research into
Alzheimer's disease and other major age-related degenerative disorders (Nasdaq: PRAN; ASX:
PBT). Prana's technology was discovered by the company's researchers at prominent
international institutions including Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard Medical School,
the University of Melbourne and the Mental Health Research Institute in Melbourne. For more
information about Prana, please visit www.pranabio.com
For more information contact:
Company Media and Investor, US Media, Australia
Geoffrey Kempler, Prana Ivette Almeida and Steven Silver Kate Mazoudier
+61 (3) 9690 7892 212-983-1702 ext. 209 +61 1 3 866 4722
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
This press release contains “forward looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995 regarding the Company’s business strategy and future plans of operation. Forward-looking statements
involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties; both general and specific to the matters discussed in this press
release. These and other important factors, including those mentioned in various Securities and Exchange Commission
filings made by the Company, may cause the Company’s actual results and performance to differ materially from the
future results and performance expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking
statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof and the Company expressly disclaims any
obligation to provide public updates, revisions or amendments to any forward-looking statements made herein to reflect
changes in the Company’s expectations or future events.